Category: B
Result: 4th

Another Friday, another evening at the track. The competition is hotting up for the prizes in the season-long omnium and there was again a good turn-out for the racing this evening, with the A's initially having over 20 riders!

I say initially, as there was a crash in their first event, which brought down 3 riders. Someone was averlapping their front wheel and it was taken out when the rider in front moved. Oooops. One of the first thing you learn about pack riding is to be careful of your front wheel! So, three riders went down, and I was already heading that way on the infield as I was rolling round, and was the first to get to Dave McCook (Prime Alliance). He had done a complete revolution in the air before landing and was quite shocked from the impact, though he didn't lose consciousness.

Fortunately there were qualified people who could look the riders over whilst the ambulance was on its way. Dave was eventually able to get up and walk away from the incident, but another rider wasn't so lucky. He was whisked off to hospital. I don't know what his injuries are, but he seemed to be in a bit of a bad way.

Racing continued with a race for the B's. We were naturally a little leary about getting into it initially, but our competitive natures did get us going eventually in this scratch race. I ended up 5th. Second race was a 12 laps pints race with sprints every 3 laps. I won the first and second sprints, and then Marc Franklin of the X-men went off the front. He won the 3rd sprint where I was 2nd, I think, and Marc managed to stay away for the final sprint. By this time I was almost spent, and didn't place in the final sprint, which meant that Marc won the event with me second.

Third event was a win and out. I got myself boxed in before the first sprint, but did manage to attack and try to win the second sprint, though I went from further out than I usually do. This was to pay me back, as I was passed for second place and had to keep going to try to get third, which I was unable to do as my legs were dead, so all that effort and I didn't place.

Final event was a miss and out. At the first elimination, I was in danger of going out, but I managed to get out of trouble and went to the front to pull the train. This worked well, and I survived at the front into the omnium points. I ended up 4th after tiring, giving a little ground and getting boxed in. Not bad.

Overall, I was 4th for the evening which got me half of my entrance fee back. The racing in the other categories was good and the large A's group was extremely impressive, despite the attrition caused by the crash.

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